Topics on which the Master rarely spoke were--Advantage, and Destiny,
and Duty of man to man.

A man of the village of Tah-hiang exclaimed of him, "A great man is
Confucius!--a man of extensive learning, and yet in nothing has he quite
made himself a name!"

The Master heard of this, and mentioning it to his disciples he said,
"What then shall I take in hand? Shall I become a carriage driver, or an
archer? Let me be a driver!"

"The sacrificial cap," he once said, "should, according to the Rules, be
of linen; but in these days it is of pure silk. However, as it is
economical, I do as all do.

"The Rule says, 'Make your bow when at the lower end of the hall'; but
nowadays the bowing is done at the upper part. This is great freedom;
and I, though I go in opposition to the crowd, bow when at the lower
end."

The Master barred four words:--he would have no "shall's," no "must's,"
no "certainty's," no "I's."

Once, in the town of K'wang fearing that his life was going to be taken,
the Master exclaimed, "King Wan is dead and gone; but is not '_wan_'
[21] with you here? If Heaven be about to allow this '_wan_' to perish,
then they who survive its decease will get no benefit from it. But so
long as Heaven does not allow it to perish, what can the men of K'wang
do to me?"

A high State official, after questioning Tsz-kung, said, "Your Master is
a sage, then? How many and what varied abilities must be his!"

The disciple replied, "Certainly Heaven is allowing him full
opportunities of becoming a sage, in addition to the fact that his
abilities are many and varied."

When the Master heard of this he remarked, "Does that high official know
me? In my early years my position in life was low, and hence my ability
in many ways, though exercised in trifling matters. In the gentleman is
there indeed such variety of ability? No."

From this, the disciple Lau used to say, "'Twas a saying of the Master:
'At a time when I was not called upon to use them, I acquired my
proficiency in the polite arts.'"

"Am I, indeed," said the Master, "possessed of knowledge? I know
nothing. Let a vulgar fellow come to me with a question--a man with an
emptyish head--I may thrash out with him the matter from end to end, and
exhaust myself in doing it!"

"Ah!" exclaimed he once, "the phoenix does not come! and no symbols
issue from the river! May I not as well give up?"

Whenever the Master met with a person in mourning, or with one in
full-dress cap and kirtle, or with a blind person, although they might
be young persons, he would make a point of rising on their appearance,
or, if crossing their path, would do so with quickened step!

Once Yen Yuen exclaimed with a sigh (with reference to the Master's
doctrines), "If I look up to them, they are ever the higher; if I try to
penetrate them, they are ever the harder; if I gaze at them as if before
my eyes, lo, they are behind me!--Gradually and gently the Master with
skill lures men on. By literary lore he gave me breadth; by the Rules of
Propriety he narrowed me down. When I desire a respite, I find it
impossible; and after I have exhausted my powers, there seems to be
something standing straight up in front of me, and though I have the
mind to make towards it I make no advance at all."

Once when the Master was seriously ill, Tsz-lu induced the other
disciples to feign they were high officials acting in his service.
During a respite from his malady the Master exclaimed, "Ah! how long has
Tsz-lu's conduct been false? Whom should I delude, if I were to pretend
to have officials under me, having none? Should I deceive Heaven?
Besides, were I to die, I would rather die in the hands of yourselves,
my disciples, than in the hands of officials. And though I should fail
to have a grand funeral over me, I should hardly be left on my death on
the public highway, should I?"

Tsz-kung once said to him, "Here is a fine gem. Would you guard it
carefully in a casket and store it away, or seek a good price for it and
sell it?" "Sell it, indeed," said the Master--"that would I; but I
should wait for the bidder."

The Master protested he would "go and live among the nine wild tribes."

"A rude life," said some one;--"how could you put up with it?"

"What rudeness would there be," he replied, "if a 'superior man' was
living in their midst?"

Once he remarked, "After I came back from Wei to Lu the music was put
right, and each of the Festal Odes and Hymns was given its appropriate
place and use."

"Ah! which one of these following," he asked on one occasion, "are to be
found exemplified in me--proper service rendered to superiors when
abroad; duty to father and elder brother when at home; duty that shrinks
from no exertion when dear ones die; and keeping free from the confusing
effects of wine?"

Standing once on the bank of a mountain stream, he said (musingly),
"Like this are those that pass away--no cessation, day or night!"

Other sayings:--

"Take an illustration from the making of a hill. A simple basketful is
wanting to complete it, and the work stops. So I stop short.

"Take an illustration from the levelling of the ground. Suppose again
just one basketful is left, when the work has so progressed. There I
desist!

"Ah! it was Hwui, was it not? who, when I had given him his lesson, was
the unflagging one!

"Alas for Hwui! I saw him ever making progress. I never saw him stopping
short.

"Blade, but no bloom--or else bloom, but no produce; aye, that is the
way with some!

"Reverent regard is due to youth. How know we what difference there may
be in them in the future from what they are now? Yet when they have
reached the age of forty or fifty, and are still unknown in the world,
then indeed they are no more worthy of such regard.

"Can any do otherwise than assent to words said to them by way of
correction? Only let them reform by such advice, and it will then be
reckoned valuable. Can any be other than pleased with words of gentle
suasion? Only let them comply with them fully, and such also will be
accounted valuable. With those who are pleased without so complying, and
those who assent but do not reform, I can do nothing at all.

"Give prominent place to loyalty and sincerity.

"Have no associates in study who are not advanced somewhat like
yourself.

"When you have erred, be not afraid to correct yourself.

"It may be possible to seize and carry off the chief commander of a
large army, but not possible so to rob one poor fellow of his will.

"One who stands--clad in hempen robe, the worse for wear--among others
clad in furs of fox and badger, and yet unabashed--'tis Tsz-lu, that, is
it not?"

Tsz-lu used always to be humming over the lines--

"From envy and enmity free,
What deed doth he other than good?"

"How should such a rule of life," asked the Master, "be sufficient to
make any one good?"

"When the year grows chilly, we know the pine and cypress are the last
to fade.

"The wise escape doubt; the good-hearted, trouble; the bold,
apprehension.

"Some may study side by side, and yet be asunder when they
come to the logic of things. Some may go on together in this
latter course, but be wide apart in the standards they reach in
it. Some, again, may together reach the same standard, and
yet be diverse in weight of character."

"The blossom is out on the cherry tree,
With a flutter on every spray.
Dost think that my thoughts go not out to thee?
Ah, why art thou far away!"

Commenting on these lines the Master said, "There can hardly have been
much 'thought going out,' What does distance signify?"

[Footnote 21: "Wan" was the honorary appellation of the great sage and
ruler, whose praise is in the "Shi-King" as one of the founders of the
Chow dynasty, and the term represented civic talent and virtues, as
distinct from Wu, the martial talent--the latter being the honorary
title of his son and successor. "Wan" also often stands for literature
and polite accomplishments. Here Confucius simply means, "If you kill
me, you kill a sage."]